1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a camera, and more particularly to a camera in which a film cartridge (Patrone) of film feeding type is loaded into a cartridge chamber in a direction substantially vertical to a cartridge shaft of the film cartridge.
2. Related Background Art
In cameras of backlid opening type, as is well known, when a backlid provided on the rear side of a camera body is opened, a cartridge chamber for receiving a film cartridge, a spool chamber including a spool shaft around which an exposed film is rolled up, an aperture disposed between the cartridge chamber and the spool chamber, a film feed passage provided behind the aperture to guide the film moved along it, etc. are all exposed for easy access. That type of camera has the characteristic that foreign matters such as dust are apt to enter the camera body from the exterior, while it is also relatively easy to remove the dust or the like once en feted.
On the other hand, there have recently been developed cameras in which a film cartridge of film feeding type, i.e., a film cartridge with the tip end of a film retracted into the cartridge, is loaded into a cartridge chamber, and a cartridge shaft of the film cartridge is rotated to feed the film outwardly from the interior of the cartridge to the backside of an aperture. In this type of camera, when loading the film cartridge into the cartridge chamber, the film tip end is not required to be drawn beforehand up to the spool shaft in the spool chamber of the camera unlike the above-mentioned conventional camera. Rather than providing a camera body with a backlid that opens as in the conventional camera, therefore, an access opening is formed in part of the camera body to be communicated with (i.e. opens into) a cavity of the cartridge chamber so that only the access opening and hence the cavity are exposed to the exterior when it is not closed. The film is fed through a vertically elongated slit formed in an inner peripheral wall of the cartridge chamber. The film cartridge of film feeding type is loaded into the cartridge chamber through the access opening by aligning the film cartridge, so that the cartridge is substantially aligned with a longitudinal direction of the cartridge chamber and moving the film cartridge in a direction perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the cartridge shaft of the film cartridge.
A camera disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 67025 of 1992, for example, is constructed as follows. For loading or unloading a film cartridge into or from the camera, a small openable/closable lid is disposed in the rear side of the cartridge chamber of the camera so as to selectively open or close only the access opening of the cartridge chamber. The film cartridge is loaded into or unloaded from the cartridge chamber through the access opening which is held open by approximate movement of the openable/closable lid. A vertically elongate slit is formed as part of a film feed passage in an inner peripheral wall of the cartridge chamber, and a film is fed through the slit to an aperture and then to a spool shaft disposed in a spool chamber. Further, in order that dust or the like will not enter the aperture and the spool chamber through the film feed passage when the openable/closable lid is open, an openable/closable gate for selectively allowing or blocking the communication between the film feed passage and the cartridge chamber is disposed to operate in interlocking relationship with the movement of the openable/closable lid. Accordingly, dust or the like can be prevented from entering the interior of the camera other than the cartridge chamber.
However, because the means for preventing intrusion of dust or the like, disclosed in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 67025 of 1992, comprises the openable/closable gate which is operated to open or close the slit formed in the inner peripheral wall of the cartridge chamber, a complex mechanism is required to operate the openable/closable gate in interlocking relationship with opening and closing of the cartridge chamber lid or loading and unloading of the film cartridge. This results in a disadvantage of increasing the number of parts and pushing up the cost.